


Colored Red

by KaSaPe, Nessarin_the_greatish



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Season/Series 05, mentions of Allura/Lotor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 18:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15467463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaSaPe/pseuds/KaSaPe, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nessarin_the_greatish/pseuds/Nessarin_the_greatish
Summary: Lance gets sent to help a planet defend itself against the Galra. The fight is easily taken care of, as is the celebration after - but when Lance gets a call that reminds him of things he would rather not think about, he tries his best to stay with the aliens for a while longer.Soon, everything goes sideways. Trouble always has a way to come to those that are looking for it, after all.





	Colored Red

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, long time no see :D 
> 
> This work will be a collab between me (KaSaPe) and Nessarin_the_greatish - the first chapter is written by me, the second chapter will be written by her. [The entire thing pretty much follows this post](https://noromojustkeith.tumblr.com/post/171704804908/you-know-what-i-think-would-be-real-neat-o-a-sort): in the first chapter you hurt someone, in the second chapter your collab partner has to make things right again. 
> 
> Ness was kind enough to message me when I asked for someone to try this out with me, so I owe her a huge thanks^^ It's just as much fun as expected, I definitely recommend you to try it out for yourself!! If there's anyone who wants to try it out but doesn't know who to ask, you can message me, I'd love to do it again (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑
> 
> [My tumblr](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/) | [Ness' tumblr](https://all-klanced-out.tumblr.com/)

The party was drawing to a close. Around half of the guests had already retired to their homes, leaving only the children serving them drinks and the adults interested in their newly formed alliance. The fight hadn’t been as hard as Lance had feared - it had barely been a fight at all, really, he had taken on much worse in the past - but the aliens were grateful all the same. Probably because they only had a handful of experienced fighters who would have gotten killed by the Galra sooner rather than later.

“Do you require another one, kind sir?”

Lance looked up and realized that he had spent the last two minutes staring at his empty glass. Grinning sheepishly, he handed it to the child and accepted a full one in return. “Sure. I really like these juice thingys, what are they made of? They’re really refreshing.”

The child blinked rapidly. “I’m afraid I do not know the answer to your question, kind sir. But if you wish so, I shall ask for-”

“No no no no no, it’s fine. I was just curious. I’m sure Hunk can produce something equally fruity… d’you think I could bring some of this back with me?”

Once again, the child blinked in quick succession. They had two eyelids, both translucent with a tinge of yellow. That was the norm for the aliens here, their skin colors ranged from pale yellow to pale orange, all slightly translucent. If Lance hadn’t met as many different alien races as he already had, he might have been weirded out by the way he could see some of their darker organs pulsing inside their stomach.

“I am certain you can! I will rush and prepare a bottle for you, kind sir.”

That was also a thing, apparently. The aliens couldn’t stop addressing him with ‘kind sir’. Not that he minded much, there were worse things to be called.

“Yeah, that’d be- aaaand you’re gone already. Cool, cool, cool.” Lance stared after the child until they disappeared through the fancy doors at the back of the room. They were huge, made even bigger by the floor that was scrubbed clean enough to mirror them. The entire building was huge, actually; huge and sparkling and elegant looking, more focused on appearance than utility. It made sense that the aliens had chosen to host their party inside the castle, it looked impressing inside and out.

Just as he was about to turn towards the window again, a new voice addressed him from the side.

“How have you taken to our celebration, kind sir?”

Plastering a smile on his face, Lance turned to raise his glass at the woman speaking to him. “I like it a lot. You’ve got a nice, spacy room here. And the view is fantastic.”

“Isn’t it?” she asked, turning to look outside. Lance followed her example.

“Yeah. You can see almost half the planet and the moon from here. And it’s so peaceful.” Lance’s eyes followed an alien couple leaving the castle’s stairs and moving down the street. They had been guests of the party, no doubt about it. The colorful fabrics draped over their arms and heads was proof of that.

“All thanks to you, kind sir. If it wasn’t for you, all of this would have gotten destroyed by the Galra.”

Pride bloomed in Lance’s chest and he leaned against the wall. “I’ll always do my best to protect those in need of help, m’lady. Though I can’t take all the credit this time - if you hadn’t called for help, Allura never would have sent me. This is just as much my victory as it is yours.”

The woman chuckled and blinked. “You are very modest, kind sir. Don’t undersell yourself. What you did was amazing.”

Lance could feel his ears heating and downed his drink all at once. The woman’s earnest stare was too much for him. Fans he could deal with, honest compliments were a whole other thing. “Yeah, well. I do what I can.”

A comfortable silence surrounded the two of them as more guests piled out of the castle. In the distance, Lance could see a pod taking off the planet.

“Where’s that ship going?”

“Hm?” The alien beside him stared at him blankly for a second, then smiled. “I’m assuming towards our moon. We have a small colony there and now that the Galra are gone, we are finally able to share our resources, kind sir.”

“Oh, really? I didn’t see a colony when I first flew over,” Lance wondered.

“That’s not surprising, it is fairly well hidden. It was first established as a safe haven because of the war, but over time our people have begun to settle there. It’s home now, for a small number of us.”

“Aw, that sounds nice-”

_“Lance! How long are you still gonna take?”_

Lance blinked and put a hand against his helmet where Pidge’s voice filtered in. “Uh-”

_“You’ve been gone for three hours now!”_

Grimacing at his company, Lance put his glass down on the windowsill. “Excuse me, I have to take this,” he whispered, gesturing at the helmet. The woman seemed curious about who was calling him, but let him go all the same. He gave her a grateful smile in response and retreated to a corner in the back of the room, hoping he’d be safe from diplomats for a few minutes.

“What’s up, Pidge?”

_“There you are! How long are you still gonna take?”_

“I don’t know,” Lance answered. He saw the child that had served him before entering the room. They clutched a bottle to their chest and were headed towards the woman at the window. “I’m quite enjoying it here. They all address me as ‘kind sir’ and act like I’m their god incarnated or something. Why?”

_“Ugh! Hunk’s still gone with Shiro and Lotor and Allura are driving me nuts. Like, I get it, they have a thing for each other, but half of the time they aren’t even listening to me anymore because they are so busy making googly eyes at each other. I need you to keep me sane.”_

Lotor and Allura.

Something sour manifested in the back of his throat and his hand froze halfway on its way to waving the alien child over.

_Lotor and Allura._

Pidge was talking again, but Lance wasn’t listening. He had zoned out, still hung up on what she had told him before.

The party was almost over. That meant he would have to return to the team. Back to where Lotor was.

Objectively, Lance knew that he was treating Lotor unfairly. He had done nothing but help the team since he had approached them allowed them to lock him into an interrogation cell. But something about the way Allura stuck to him made him feel sick to his stomach.

Lotor was Lotor. A prince. An emperor. And Lance- Lance was just Lance - just a boy from Cuba. He could never compare to-

Yeah, no, on second thought, he would stay on this planet for as long as the aliens let him.

“Sorry, Pidge,” Lance interrupted her rambling. “There’s a parade coming my way. Looks like I’ll be stuck here for a while.”

Pidge groaned. _“Really? Can’t you hurry them up?”_

“Are you suggesting that I be rude to our new allies?! Incredible, I can’t believe I used to think that Keith was the one who was bad at diplomacy when it was you all along!”

 _“Very funny, Lance,”_ Pidge said flatly. _“Fine. While you go flirt with the entirety of the alien parade, I’ll see if I can find something to keep myself busy. Maybe Coran could use help with something. See ya, Lance!”_

“Later, Pidge.”

The transmission cut out and Lance breathed in slowly. There was no parade, but he would rather keep talking to diplomats than be around Lotor and Allura again.

If Keith was here he would have called him an idiot for that.

A sad smirk tugged at his lips. Lance had never expected to miss Keith that much. When was the last time he had heard anything from him? It must have been a month or something. The Blade wasn’t all that big on communication with outsiders. He missed having someone to make fun of.

The alien child finally caught sight of Lance and hurried towards him. Lance gave them a big smile and thanked them for their efforts, leaving the child beaming in return. It was only once the child had left that he realized that he would have to carry the bottle in his hand for the rest of the evening - their suits didn’t have pockets, after all.

“Hey Keith, can you-”

Lance cut himself off. What was he doing?! He had just been thinking about how much he missed having Keith around. There were no fanny packs or cropped red jackets around.

“What am I? Stupid?” Lance muttered to himself as he shook his head. Time to get a move on. Maybe he could ask one of the children if they could bring him a small bag. They always seemed delighted to talk to him. And he still had to entertain the diplomats, if he didn’t they would end the party any moment now. Sighing, he made his way back towards the window where the woman still waited for him.

“Is everything alright, kind sir?”

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine, my team’s just missing me already. No big deal.”

The woman blinked. Lance thought that blinking seemed to express be some kind of emotion for these aliens. Did they think he was weird for doing it constantly? “If it is like that, should you not hurry back to them?”

“Oh, no, they can hold out a few vargas without me. We do this a lot, diplomatic talks and stuff. They are used to it already. They’re just missing  _me_ specifically - but I’d much rather spend my time with a beauty like you,” Lance said, winking at them before he remembered that he still wasn’t sure what blinking meant to them. Oh well.

The woman smiled indulgently. “I trust your judgement, kind sir.”

“Aw, thanks. Speaking of judgement - do you have a bag or a rope or something so that I don’t have to carry this bottle the whole time?” Lance lifted it and grinned. “I want to bring it home to my team so that they can cast judgement upon it.”

Laughter filled the air as the woman waved a child over. Lance listened to her talk to the child and watched them scurry off with an eager nod.

“They are cute,” he offered once they were gone.

“Who? The children?”

“Yeah,” Lance said. “They seem very excited to be here.”

“They are. They usually have quite a strict bedtime, but today was made an exception. It’s not every day that our planet gets rid of a threat of the Galra.”

“I guess that’s true. When I was little, I also got very excited about being allowed to stay up with the adults.”

They shared another laugh and another alien approached them. He seemed older than the woman and if Lance remembered it correctly he was the equivalent of a vice president of the country. The president himself was a  _really_ old man who had retired half an hour ago after he fell asleep on a chair next to the banquet.

...maybe Lance was overstaying his welcome a little.

_Lotor and Allura._

...or maybe he could stay a little longer.

“Hello. I don’t think we’ve talked yet, kind sir. My name is Hunjai,” the alien said, blinking. Lance blinked back.

“I’m Lance.”

It seemed to have been the right thing to do, as the man gave him a soft smile. “So what do you think of our planet?”

“It’s amazing,” Lance said honestly. “I don’t remember the last time I had  _this_ many food options to choose from. And your castle is beautiful. The view especially is stunning.” All three of them turned towards the window, watching a bird fly by as another pod took off in the background. The sun was going down now, dyeing the entire planet a deep red.

Keith would have liked it.

Lance chased the thought away before it could catch hold.

“Excuse me, kind sir?” a high pitched voice piped up. Lance turned around to see the child the woman had talked to extending some kind of harness to him that he could use to sling the bottle over his shoulder. It seemed to be made of a sturdy kind of leather, barely expanding when he gave an experimental tug.

“Awesome! This is perfect, thanks!”

“What is in it, if I may ask, kind sir?” Hunjai said. Lance slung the rope over his head to his left shoulder, letting the bottle dangle against his right hip.

“Nothing special, just the pink juice. I liked it a lot and asked for some so that I could share it with my team.”

“We will provide as much coral juice as you want,” the woman smiled. Hunjai hurried to agree with her and Lance laughed.

“I believe you, thanks, really, but there’s no need - maybe I’ll visit again soon, then you can give me some more. I doubt I’ll be able to carry that much stuff over to Red.” The moment Lance said it he realized that he had made a mistake. The aliens would definitely insist that they could carry the juice for him with how forthcoming they had been so far. “Plus, I don’t even know if the others will like it. No offense to you, of course, it’s just that sometimes they don’t have any taste at all.”

“Then we will eagerly await your future visits, kind sir.”

“Same here. I’ll be looking forward to it,” Lance said, nodding at each of them in turn.

This would be the perfect moment to hand over the communicator and end the party. But ending the party would mean going back to-

_‘Lance, just do your job and stop being such a scaredy-cat.’_

What he would give for Keith to be here and tell him that himself. The voice in his head really couldn’t make up for it. He tried to ignore the pain in his chest and activated his gauntlet to materialize the communicator.

“Um, I have something for you that you can use to contact team Voltron if you are in need of assistance. It’s quite easy to handle, just press down here,” Lance pointed at the only button at the middle of the device, “and it instantly connects you to us. It’s a symbol of our new friendship and I hope you will accept it.”

Both aliens breathed in deeply and gave a broad grin. “Thank you so much, kind sir!”

“We appreciate it a lot!”

“If there is anything we can do to repay you-”

“-we will let you know,” Lance finished the phrase. The aliens seemed delighted and thanked him again, wishing him a safe trip when he said he should get going now. There was a tiny bit of guilt in Lance’s chest when he passed another woman at the door who was trying (and failing) to disguise a yawn - but hey, it was a party! You didn’t party hard enough if you weren’t tired by the end of it, right? And she could have left at any moment, this wasn’t Lance’s fault. Not entirely, at least.

Forcing himself to think positively, Lance left the castle. He wouldn’t let this get him down. And hey, the party might be over, but no one said he had to return right now. He could take a stroll around the village and admire the stunningly vibrant colors of the planet or the architecture of their delicately built houses. He was in space, there was much to discover here.

Just as he had reached the last step of the castle, he picked up on a sound. Halting in his path, Lance tilted his head a little. He was unsure what he was hearing. The noise was faint, very much so, and if he hadn’t looked for a distraction he might have overheard it. Also, it was kind of familiar, he just couldn’t place it at the moment.

Well. He had been looking for a distraction and here it was. Shrugging, Lance turned left to follow what he had heard, mentally apologizing to Red. The lion would have to be a little more patient, even if that wasn’t his forte. He was much like Keith that way.

Keith again. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about him today?! Just because he was on a planet that was color-coded like his former rival didn’t mean that he had to think about him every chance he got.

Grumbling under his breath, Lance kicked a stone. Stupid Keith. Always distracting and annoying him, even when he wasn’t here anymore. “Prepare to get your ass kicked for this once you come back,” he told the stone. The stone was unimpressed - then again, it hadn’t been directed at it anyway. And it was a stone, it’s not like it could cry or anything-

Crying. That’s what the noise was.

For a split second Lance froze in his path, then he picked up the pace. He rounded the next corner and sped up even further, ignoring the orange turtle with horns on the side of the street. In the back of his mind he wondered if he’d be able to find his way back, but then figured he could use the castle to orient himself. And if he was completely lost, he could always knock on someone’s door and ask them for a map or something.

Some running and another corner to the right later had Lance slowing down again. There already was an adult taking care of the child, placing a hand on their back and gently steering them towards the group of other children who were getting in line to enter a tunnel underground. Lance smiled warmly, ignoring the faint pang in his chest. This was not the time to miss his family again.

“Hey!” he called, making his way over to the group. The woman with the child halted and turned, staring unblinkingly at Lance.

“Hello?”

“Hi, my name’s Lance. Y’know, the red paladin of Voltron. Don’t pay too much attention to the armor.” He winked at the woman before going down to his knees, blinking at the child. “What’s your name?”

“Teon,” the child answered. They had stopped crying for now, both hands shyly twisting the fabric dangling from their arms.

“Hello, Teon. It’s nice to meet you. There’s no need to cry, I’m sure you and your friends are gonna have a lot of fun. Where are you guys going?”

The child’s eyes widened and the woman reflexively placed a hand on their head. “Underground. The children are on a very strict sleeping schedule.”

Lance did a double take and turned around to look at the houses. “Uh, what? You guys don’t keep your children at home during the night?”

“No,” the alien replied tersely.

“Huh.” That was kind of weird. Then again, Lance had seen weirder stuff during his time in space. “I thought today was a day off from all that. Celebration for freeing the planet from the Galra and all that.”

The woman didn’t blink as she let her hand fall from Teon’s head to their shoulder. “Whoever told you that must have been mistaken. There are no breaks from our sleeping schedule.”

“Wait, what?” Lance thought back to all the children serving him drinks. “No, no, I’m pretty sure that they were telling the truth.”

“Then you must have misunderstood. Have a good day.” With these words, the alien woman tugged on the child’s shoulder and led them towards the group. It was weird, Lance thought - there were very little adults. Shouldn’t the parents at least come by to say good night?

It was an impulsive decision that made him stay. One moment he was waving and walking away, the next he was hiding around the corner of a house, crouching and straining his ears. Keith would have been proud of him, he thought wryly. He was finally listening to his instincts like a true red paladin.

As he watched the children enter the tunnel, Lance tried to pinpoint what had made him stay. They didn’t seem upset or anything. Were it the discrepancies between the children he had seen at the party and the woman’s words? The way none of these aliens seemed to blink? The fact that no one used overly polite words to address him? It was like he was looking at a wholly different group of aliens.

Maybe he was just looking for a reason to stay on the planet for a little while longer.

But no. It wasn’t that. Not… not  _only_ that, at least. Lance didn’t like doubting people but he disliked people lying to his face even more.

When the last child had entered the tunnel and all the adults had followed them, Lance got up from his crouch. He looked left and right to make sure that no one was watching, then he sprinted towards the tunnel. Earth was crunching beneath his feet, reminding him that he wasn’t on a Galra ship. He was spying on allies this time.

The adrenaline was the same though.

Pressing himself against the wall next to the tunnel’s entrance, Lance materialized his bayard. Slowly, he turned his head to get a visual on what would expect him inside of it.

Nothing. There was no one standing guard, and no cameras either, as far as he could see. Just the reddish-brown walls of the tunnel.

Blinking uncertainly, Lance dematerialized his bayard again. Had he gotten paranoid? Was he now seeing threats where there were none? It looked like the alien had spoken the truth, they really were just leading the kids to sleep. The children at the castle were probably related to the guests he had met; there was no big mystery to solve.

“...I’ll still go take a look. Just to be sure,” Lance murmured to himself. If only to calm his nerves.

For a while, the only noise Lance could hear were his own footsteps. His eyes followed the walls, wondering how far the tunnel would take him. It wasn’t extremely steep, he couldn’t be too far beneath the surface. Why would the aliens make their children sleep here? Was there something about the night air that was bad for them? Had it something to do with the light of the moon, maybe?

He’d have to ask Pidge about it later.

When Lance picked up on voices on the distance, he took care to soften his footsteps a little. So far the words were indiscernible, but as he got closer a second noise became obvious.

Humming. Like a machine of some kind.

Frowning, Lance picked up the pace. The tunnel was widening now, it couldn’t be far anymore. Where did that humming come from? Light was filtering in from the room at the end of it, he was almost there-

Lance wasn’t quite sure what he had expected from his trip underground, but it wasn’t this. His eyes widened as he watched a small group of adults usher the children inside a ship. Some of the children were crying and clinging to each other, none of them seemed excited to enter the pod. If there was any doubt about whether the children were simply going to sleep inside the ship, the opened metal hatch over the ship dispersed them.

These adults wanted to take the children somewhere. And the kids weren’t happy about it.

A bad feeling began to spread through him. He hadn’t been spotted yet, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last. He had to figure out what was going on, and _fast_. Where was that woman from before?!

When Lance saw her, his heart dropped. She was standing off to the side, armed, and just as unaffected as the other adults were. She was one of them. Lance cursed under his breath and activated his bayard, making his way towards her. None of the guards were keeping watch over the tunnel’s entrance, which meant that the weapons they were carrying were there to intimidate the children.

If possible, Lance’s disgust rose even more.

When he reached the woman, he didn’t hesitate to grab her arm and spin her towards him. She didn’t make a sound, but visibly flinched and readied her gun at Lance.

Recognition flitted across her face, but that was all.

“What is going on here?!” Lance hissed. “What’s the meaning of all this?!”

“It’s none of your business,” the woman bit back, loud enough to catch the attention of everyone else in the room.

For a split second, there was silence. Then a high pitched cry broke it and made Lance’s head swivel around.

“Lance!”

 _Teon_.

His eyes searched the remaining children and found them just outside the ship, clinging to the open door with all their might. An adult was trying to shove them inside, but they wouldn’t let go.

That’s when Lance realized that he recognized that pod.

He had seen two of them take off from the palace already.

A wave of cold fear crashed over him as he turned back to the woman. “Where are you taking them?”

No response. He couldn’t breathe.

_“Where are you taking these children?!”_

The woman’s hand twitched and instinct took over. Activating his shield, Lance yanked his arm up to deflect the shot. He barely had enough time to register resistance when there was a loud noise and pain spread through his right side.

Pain… he had been shot.

Chaos broke out in the room. Lance yanked harder at his shield until the rope of the bottle of coral juice ripped and allowed him to take cover. And not a second too late, multiple shots were already coming at him.

He had to contact the team. But first he had to find a semi-protected spot, there might have been only fifteen guards, but their guns had more firepower and he was too close to aim properly. If he couldn’t find cover, it was game over for him.

His eyes scanned the room and idea took hold in Lance’s head as his gaze landed on the entrance to the tunnel. The children were finally resisting now, distracting the guards closest to them and allowing Lance to get a clear shot at the wall. Part of it broke down, just enough for Lance to duck behind and buy him a few precious seconds to activate the communicator in his helmet.

Static.

“Hello? Pidge?!”

More static.

“Allura! Coran!”

Nothing.

“ _Anyone!_ Can anyone hear me?!”

The boulder Lance was hiding behind broke under the continued assault of the alien’s firearms. Cursing, Lance raised his shield again and ran to the right. He had to get away from the unsteady ground of the broken boulder if he didn’t want to inevitably slip and fall - a tunnel really wasn’t the best place for a gunfight.

A particularly hard shot threw Lance back against the wall with his helmet taking a heavy blow. Dizziness overtook him and he shook his head to get rid of it. He had to keep moving, he had to-

“Anyone! Please! Come on guys, I really need you right now!”

Still only static.

It must have been the tunnel, Lance realized. He was an idiot, he should have checked if his communication devices still worked before he entered it. Stupid, _stupid-_

“Fuck!” Another hard hit had allowed one of the aliens to come closer and aim at his legs. Lance curled up behind his shield before darting out quickly to take a shot.

He hit the alien. The guy went down with a cry, gun still firing wildly in the general direction of his legs.

“Why are you doing this?” Lance called out. “Where are you taking these children? What are your plans for them?”

The man on the ground gave a broken laugh and fired a shot that missed Lance by a mile. “Y’really thin’ the Galra woul-” A cough. “-woul’ jus’ give up like that? Please. You barely did anythin’. Firs’ y’take forever to respon’ to our call, then you try t’ take the cre-credit for-” The guy’s words trailed off into unintelligible noises before he finally dropped down, dead.

But Lance couldn’t care less about that, he was stuck on the first part still.

 _The Galra_.

Breathing became more difficult as Lance’s thoughts raced to keep up with the new information. He had thought that the fight had been a little too easy. The Galra had backed off earlier than they had had in months. He should have known that something was off right then and there. And now these aliens were taking their children to- to what, to the arena, to enslave them, to harvest them for quintessence-

Lance cried out as he lowered his shield and fired at the two nearest aliens. He took them down, but he didn’t even have enough time to celebrate when he already had to raise his shield again to protect himself from a woman coming closer.

Way too close. He couldn’t aim like this.

Without a second thought, Lance transformed his bayard into a sword and lunged at her. He managed to cut through her gun, but she ducked under his arm and used the broken metal to slice up his arm. The sudden pain almost made him drop his bayard, but he held on tight. He couldn’t afford to lose it. Not like this. Not with more than ten enemies still against him.

Not when he was the only hope of these children.

The pain made his sight a little blurry as he switched hands with his shield and his bayard. His right side was essentially useless, he needed his left arm if he wanted to get any shots in.

It took him all but three seconds to realize that he wasn’t going to win this. Yes, he had trained his left arm for holding his gun, of course he had, but he wasn’t ambidextrous. And he had barely had enough time to get his right hand used to the sword, forget about the left. He was doomed; and so were the children.

Lance was shaking as he looked towards the pod again. The kids were still there, quiet now, holding each other and staring at him full of terror.

He was their  _only hope_. He had already failed the children in the other two pods, he couldn’t fail these ones, too.

“Get in the ship!” Lance shouted at them, struggling to hold up his shield against the pain. The children didn’t react, they just kept staring. “The ship!” he repeated desperately.

Finally, there was movement with some of the children entering the spacecraft. Lance spotted one of them holding their arm, a reddish substance running down from it. Some of them had already gotten hurt, most likely in an attempt to help him.

Lance had always known he hated war, but he couldn’t think of a time where he had hated himself as much as he did now.

 _“Get in the ship!”_ he shouted again, finally dropping his shield. His right arm simply couldn’t hold it anymore. Lance ran towards the children, barely registering that he got hit in the back. His armor took the brunt of it this time.  _“In, in, in! Come on, go!”_

This time, the children reacted. They followed his orders, pushing each other to enter the ship faster. Lance couldn’t stay to make sure that they all made it, not when he was drawing the collective fire of all the adults in the room. Instead, he tackled the man closest to the children, driving his sword through his stomach before he had enough time to react.

Their suits were resistant against changes in temperature, but Lance swore he could feel the heat of the alien’s blood staining his fingers. This was different from fighting Galra sentries.

No time.

Lance twisted around, dropping the alien and his bayard to activate his shield again. He forced his right arm to work through the pain and grab the sword, pulling it out of the body before checking on the children.

Three left.

Lance got down on one knee, using the other to prop his arm up. It was a risky move, but Lance couldn’t allow these children to leave the planet. If he didn’t return home in a few hours, the team would likely come with backup. But that wouldn’t mean anything if the children weren’t on the planet anymore, already sold to the Galra to live the rest of their lives in fear and suffering. He had to do this, no matter the cost.

Two left.

It was difficult blocking shots like this. He had a lot less mobility and the aliens had a height advantage on him.

One left.

Lance changed his sword into his sniper rifle and aimed at the cockpit of the pod. The world faded into the background as he focused entirely on hitting his target - the steering mechanism. He didn’t know where the fuel tanks were located, but if he hit them, the entire pod would blow up.

None left. The children were all aboard.

“Close the door!” Lance called. In the corner of his eye, he saw one of the adults move, trying to enter the ship. Lance didn’t hesitate to twist his body around, dropping his shield to fire at them.

Something hit his shoulder.

Lance ignored it, he kept firing at the man until he went down. Then his eyes flitted over to the door - closed - and he finally took the shot at the cockpit.

There was a bang and the sound of a window exploding, prompting at least half of the remaining aliens to take a look at the ship. Smoke rose from the steering room and Lance heard someone cursing. The pod couldn’t take off like this.

A bitter smile snuck itself on Lance’s face. Good. Now he just had to make sure that none of the aliens could get back up to repair the pod before the team arrived.

He counted the remaining adults. Ten against one.

 _Impossible_.

But he couldn’t fail.

Lance wasn’t sure which part of him got the frankly insane idea he went with, but he had the vague thought that this insane part of him was the only one that wasn’t making mistakes today.

He readied his blaster and shot at the ceiling. The ship would be safe - not only was it made of sturdy metal, right over it was the small opened hatch that showed the night sky. There would be no boulders crushing it to death.

Once the aliens realized what he was doing, it was already too late. They screamed and tried to dive out of the way of the falling rocks, but there were simply too many. The ground was vibrating beneath Lance’s feet, the entire tunnel was collapsing.

Lance made an attempt to protect himself against the debris with his shield, but the first hit was enough to throw him to the ground and the world went black.

 

* * *

 

Pain.

There was nothing but pain.

Lance made a high-pitched noise that ended in a cough and blacked out again.

 

* * *

 

More pain. For how long had he been out? Shouldn’t the team be here by now? Had they forgotten about him? What about the kids, did they make it? He hadn’t accidentally crushed the pod, had he? What time was it? Everything was dark, Lance didn’t know.

He didn’t know.

 

* * *

 

Lance was Lance.

He wasn’t Shiro. Had he been Shiro, things would have gone differently. Shiro would have been suspicious the moment the Galra gave up as easily as they had. He would have made it back to the planet and had talked to the aliens about extra security measures. Chances are he would have noticed that they were lying, that they were buying their way out of Galra occupation with the lives of their children. He would have saved them all.

But he wasn’t Shiro. Lance was just Lance.

 

* * *

 

Something was wrong with his elbow.

Everything hurt and his brain was fuzzy, but he was pretty sure that it shouldn’t be able to touch the middle of his back. Or maybe it should. What did his biology professor always say? “Every mass has a gravitational energy, so technically everyone is at least a little attracted to everyone.”

No, wait. That was physics.

Or was it?

His brain was way too fuzzy for this. He couldn’t handle thinking. He wished he would black out again.

 

* * *

 

Lance wasn’t Pidge. He wasn’t a genius - Pidge would have known that something was off when that woman started talking about their second colony on the moon. She would have collected data about every celestial object surrounding the planet way in advance and she would have asked details that would have made the woman’s lie contradict itself. She would have done her job and left the party on time. She would have saved that first pod.

And the second. And the third.

But Lance wasn’t Pidge. He was just Lance.

 

* * *

 

Would his family miss him? He sure hoped so. He missed them.

 

* * *

 

Lance wasn’t Hunk. Hunk had amazing people skills, he would have known that the aliens were hiding something the moment he had met them. And even if he hadn’t, even if he had gotten distracted by the buffet or their weird blinking habits, he would have entered the tunnel and checked if his communication device still worked. He would have notified the team beforehand, giving them enough time to save the pods that had already taken off and the one still in the hanger.

But Lance wasn’t Hunk. He was just Lance.

 

* * *

 

The pain grew less intense. Lance wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. At the moment, he was inclined to say good. Anything that didn’t make it feel like he was actively dying was good.

Hah.

He was dying, wasn’t he?

(God, he hoped the children had made it.)

 

* * *

 

Lance wasn’t Allura. He didn’t have any of her special skills. Allura was an amazing diplomat who would have gotten the aliens to voluntarily tell her that they had made a deal with the Galra. She would have solved the entire thing without any fighting at all. And even if she hadn’t, she could have taken all the soldiers in the room at once. She would have returned the children to their families and notified the team of what was going on; she would have saved everyone.

But Lance wasn’t Allura. He was just Lance.

 

* * *

 

Lance, the idiot. Lance, the failure. Lance, who wasn’t enough. Lance, Lance, Lance.

 

* * *

 

Lance wasn’t Keith.

(He missed Keith.)

Keith would have seen the pod and known something was off immediately, his instincts were just that good. He would have questioned the aliens and if he hadn’t gotten an answer, he would have run back to his own ship to catch up with the pod and save the children. And even if he hadn’t, Keith would have handled the whole situation a lot better than Lance did. Keith wouldn’t have had the bottle of coral juice, he wouldn’t have gotten shot. Keith was ambidextrous. Keith could have simply entered the pod and flown it out of the hanger with the children inside because Keith was a once in a century pilot and Lance-

Lance was Lance.

Just Lance.

 


End file.
